Discussion Paper



Seminar on Systemic Reforms in

Indian Teacher Education

Discussion Paper[*]

1. 0 Introduction

There is ample substance in the oft repeated statement of National Policy of Education (NPE-1986) that no society can rise above the level of its teachers. The level or status of teachers, no doubt, depends on several factors but the professional competence and motivation are among most important determinants of their level. Teachers’ professional competence in turn depends on the effectiveness of their education and training – both pre-service and in-service. However, there is a widespread feeling in the country that the pre-service teacher education system in the country has failed to keep pace with the changing realities of school education and the system of in-service education has not been institutionalized so far. The situation calls for systemic reforms in pre-service teacher education and institutionalization of in-service education. The present paper makes an attempt to address the issue of the need for systemic reforms in pre-service teacher education.

2.0 Existing Teacher Education Structures

The existing teacher education system is organized stage-wise, that is, a separate teacher education programme is organized for a defined sub-stage of school education. For example, programmes known as Diploma in ECCE or NTT, Diploma in Elementary Education [D.Ed.] and Bachelor of Education [B.Ed.] are in place for pre-primary, elementary and secondary stages of school education respectively. The teacher education programmes presently in vogue for different stages are briefly described below:

ECCE or Pre-Primary Stage: At present, two programmes of ECCE [pre-school] teacher education are recognized by NCTE. The entry qualification and duration of the first programme is Class X pass and two years respectively. The programme aims at preparing teachers for the children of 3-6 years [pre-primary stage]. The entry qualification and duration of the second programme is senior secondary [Class XII] pass and two years respectively. The programme aims at preparing teachers for the children of 4-8 years’ age group covering pre-primary and grades I and II of primary stage. During the past few years, the second programme with Class XII as the entry qualification, has become more popular as new institutions are seeking NCTE’s recognition for this programme only. The number of institutions offering the first programme with Class X as the entry qualification is very small. In fact, the programme is likely to get phased out for want of demand.

Elementary Stage: Elementary stage comprises primary stage [Classes I – V] and upper primary stage [Classes VI-VIII]. The entry qualification for the teacher education programme meant for preparing teachers for this stage is now Class XII in majority of states, and the duration is two years in all the states. During the pre-independence period, the entry qualification for this programme was just middle [Class VIII] pass, which was subsequently raised to Class X and then to Class XII after NPE-1986. The duration of the programme has also been raised from one year to two years. However, a few states, like Uttar Pradesh and Uttranchal, have recently prescribed the Bachelor in Arts or Science [B.A. / B.Sc.] as the entry qualification for the elementary teacher education programme.

There is no common nomenclature for the elementary teacher education programme in the country. For example, it is known as ETE [Elementary Teacher Education] in Delhi BTC [Basic Training Course] in Uttar Pradesh and Uttranchal, D.Ed. [Diploma in Education] in Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh, DTE [Diploma in Teacher Education] in Tamil Nadu and, TTC [Teacher Training Certificate] in Kerala.

In theory, this programme aims at preparing teachers for the entire elementary stage of education, that is, Classes I-VIII, but as per the recruitment rules currently in vogue in many states, the products of this programme are eligible for teaching only at the primary stage, that is, Classes I-V, as the academic qualification of senior secondary is considered inadequate for teaching upper primary classes [VI-VIII].

An alternative model of preparing elementary school teachers developed by the University of Delhi, is presently being offered in a few colleges of the University. The degree level programme known as Bachelor of Elementary Education [B.El.Ed.] is an integrated programme of 4 years’ duration and combines the study of professional education with general education of graduation standard. Besides preparing elementary school teachers, the programme also aims at preparing a cadre of professionals in elementary education.

Secondary Stage: Teacher education is generally considered synonymous with the B.Ed. [Bachelor of Education] programme, which in fact, is meant for preparing teachers for secondary stage of education. Traditionally, the programme was designed to prepare teachers for Classes VI-X, but with the transfer of Classes XI-XII to the school stage, the scope of the programme was extended to the senior secondary stage without making any significant change in its content and methodology. Though elementary and secondary stages of school education officially include Classes I-VIII and IX-XII respectively but the B.Ed. programme continues to be considered suitable and relevant for preparing teachers for Classes VI-XII. Thus, for teaching at the upper primary stage, both ETE and B.Ed. programmes are recognized as valid qualifications.

Realizing the inadequacy of the existing B.Ed. programme of one year duration, the NCTE curriculum framework of 1998 recommended two years as its duration. The B.Ed. programme of two years’ duration has been introduced on a pilot basis in 4-5 institutions but it has failed to catch the attention of teacher education institutions and has, by and large, proved to be a non-starter. There are few takers for the programme in spite of its projection as a great innovation in teacher-education.

The country has also experimented with an integrated model of secondary teacher education of four years’ duration after senior secondary [+2] for more than forty years in 4 Regional Institutes of Education but despite its widely acclaimed strengths and potential for producing quality teachers, it has not gone beyond the four walls of Regional Institutes of Education.

Senior Secondary Stage: No programme for preparing teachers specifically for the senior secondary stage of education is currently in vogue. A person holding B.Ed. degree along with a post-graduation degree in a school subject is eligible for teaching at this stage. A B.Ed. degree holder automatically becomes eligible for teaching senior secondary classes after acquiring a post-graduation degree. This clearly implies that no specific inputs are required for becoming a senior secondary school teacher. Sometimes back, Regional Institutes of Education [RIEs] of NCERT introduced integrated M.Sc.Ed. programmes of 2 years’ duration in Science subjects addressed to preparation of teachers for this stage but the programme has been discontinued.

3.0 Underlying Assumptions

The existing teacher education system is based on certain assumptions, some of which are briefly mentioned below:

  • Teachers with higher academic qualifications are required to teach at higher levels and for lower levels teachers with lower academic qualifications will serve the purpose. For example, post-graduation and graduation is considered essential for the senior secondary and secondary stage respectively, while senior secondary and secondary is considered sufficient for the primary and pre-primary stage respectively.
  • The duration of elementary teacher education should be longer in comparison to the duration of secondary teacher education to make up for the trainees’ lower academic qualifications and level of maturity.
  • Since in primary schools, the system of class teaching is followed, that is, one teacher teaching all the subjects in the given class, therefore, elementary teacher education programme should aim at preparing a trainee for teaching all curricular areas irrespective of the fact that he / she is comfortable with or interested in or otherwise in some of the areas.
  • A trainee of a secondary teacher education programme should be prepared to teach two subjects of secondary school curriculum even if he / she has not studied both the subjects at the graduation level.
  • Professional education of a teacher may commence in a teacher education institution after he / she has completed the general education in an institution exclusively meant for imparting general education at the secondary or graduation level.
  • Secondary teacher education degree, that is, B.Ed. automatically entitles a person to teach at the senior secondary level or in elementary or secondary teacher education institutions as and when he / she acquires a post-graduation degree.

4.0 What is wrong with the present system?

Some of the assumptions on which the present system is based are questionable. It is possible that the assumptions might have lost their validity with the passage of time because of changes in the society in general and in the education sector in particular. For example, lower academic qualifications for primary teachers might have been fixed because of non-availability of sufficient number of persons with higher qualifications willing to teach inprimary schools. But now, things have changed and the supply of persons with higher qualifications is quite comfortable. There is a view that teachers of lower classes should not be less qualified than the teachers of higher classes. Needless to say that there is enough merit in this view and in many developed countries of the world, the qualifications as well as emoluments of primary and secondary teachers are almost identical.

Apart from the emerging doubts and reservations about the underlying assumptions, the system of teacher education has failed to transform itself in tune with the changes in the school system. There is a view that it is the teacher education system, which should set the agenda for the school system and, therefore, school education system should transform itself in the light of changes occurring in teacher education. This view may appear to be theoretically sound but in our situation, renewal or revision of school curriculum always precedes the renewal of teacher education curriculum. Many a times, the delay in the transformation of teacher education leads to dissonance between the two systems. The following examples make it clear that the present day teacher education and school curricula lack synchronization:

  • Elementary teacher education programme aims at preparing teachers for teaching all curricular areas of primary curriculum due to prevalence of class teaching system in primary classes. But the class teaching system is now being gradually replaced by ‘subject teaching’. It is found that a Class XII pass teacher is not adequately equipped to teach eight curricular areas [two languages, science, mathematics, social studies, work experience, physical education and arts] in primary classes.
  • The introduction of the concept of elementary education encompassing primary and upper primary stages on the one hand and the transfer of Classes XI-XII to the school education had disturbed the long established system of teacher education. Earlier primary teacher education programme [JBT, BTC, PTC, etc.] and the secondary teacher education programme [B.Ed., BT, LT, etc.] were associated with classes I-V and VI-X respectively and not with the present day stages of elementary and secondary. The teacher education system responded to structural changes in the school system in an ad-hoc manner and simply extended the scope of ETE to include Classes VI-VIII and that of STE (B.Ed) to include Classes XI-XII. This attempt at synchronization of teacher education levels or stages with the school stages has brought about many distortions in the teacher education system.
  • With the extension of itsscope theETE programme now aims at preparing teachers for teaching all subjects [eight or nine] up to Class VIII in some states while in some other states, which have taken a more pragmatic stand,it aims at preparing teachers for teaching all subjects upto Class V and 2-3 subjects in classes VI-VIII. But in view of enriched school curricula, a teacher with general education of class XII level finds it difficult to teach all subjects in classes I-V and even two subjects in classes VI-VIII. There is now realization that general education of graduation level is the minimum essential for teaching upper primary classes. In fact, school system, by and large, has refused to accept the products of ETE programme for teaching at the upper primary stage.
  • In the biggest state of the country, that is, Uttar Pradesh, graduation has been prescribed as the minimum qualification for admission to the two years’ BTC programme meant for preparing primary school teachers and a few other states are also contemplating to follow suit. It is being claimed that the measure will go a long way to improve the quality of primary education as better qualified teachers will come forward to join as primary teachers. But this has created an anomalous situation. A person with graduation degree and BTC diploma of two years duration is eligible for the position of primary teacher in a lower pay scale while another person with the same academic qualification but holding B.Ed. degree of one year duration becomes eligible for the position of a secondary school teacher in a higher pay scale.
  • The existing B.Ed. programme is claimed to be a programme preparing teachers for teaching two subjects at the secondary stage. The combination of subjects available at the college level is not fixed keeping in view the requirement of teaching profession. In many cases, student teachers have to choose a teaching subject, which they have not studied at the degree level or for which they do not have any inclination. In many universities, honours courses at the graduation level are advanced level courses, which provide for specialization in one subject only. Besides honours graduates, the Commerce graduates and students with Psychology, Philosophy, Sociology, etc., as subjects at the graduation level find it very difficult to choose two school subjects as teaching subjects in the B.Ed. programme.
  • In this age of specialization, why should we continue to insist on preparing teachers for teaching two subjects? The requirement of two subjects is a legacy of the pre-independence period when in small sized schools, teachers did not have enough work load in one subject and the school curriculum was not very demanding and, therefore, a teacher was able to handle two subjects.
  • The composite or integrated subjects like social science [studies] and general or integrated science are post-independence phenomena. These subjects draw their content from separate disciplines such as history, geography, political science and economics in the case of social science and physics, chemistry,botany and zoology in the case of general science. A student teacher opting for social science or general science as a teaching subject might have studied only 2 or 3 social sciences orscience subjects at the graduation level but he / she is expected to teach the total subject up to Class X. But this expectation is perhaps unrealistic because in most of the schools different components of these integrated subjects are taught by separate teachers possessing post-graduation degree in the subject concerned. The genesis of component-wise teaching may be perhaps traced to the attitudinal barriers among teachers, who are reluctant to go beyond the narrow specialization of their subject and do not want to make any conscious attempt to use the concept of integration in the teaching of these subjects. The practice followed by schools may be indicative of the limitations of the concept itself and hence pointing towards the need for revisiting the issue of integration.

The examples given above are indicative of lack of synchronization between school curriculum and teacher education curriculum. However, the list of examples is by no means exhaustive. There can be a number of other examples, which may also point towards the same phenomenon.

5.0Teacher Educators

The weaknesses of the teacher education system mentioned above are further exacerbated if right type of teacher educators are not available to run the system. Needless to say that no programme specifically meant for the preparation of teacher educators is available in the country. A person trained as secondary school teacher automatically becomes eligible as a teacher educator in an ECCE or elementary teacher education institution. On the strength of B.Ed degree a person is not eligible to become a primary school teacher but is eligible to prepare primary school teachers. No imagination is neededto understand the irony inherent in the situation. A persontrained as an elementary school teacher, shall have to undergo secondary teacher training first to become eligible for teaching in elementary teacher education institutions.

The M.Ed. programme is generally considered as an appropriate qualification for the position of a teacher educator in elementary as well as secondary teacher education institutions. The entry qualification for admission tothe M.Ed. programme is B.Ed degree. This implies that the D.Ed. or JBT / BTC programme is of no use for pursuing master level programme because it is perceived as a lower qualification than B.Ed. But, while determining eligibility for appointment as primary teachers,B.Ed. is considered a different qualification rather than a higher qualification than the D.Ed.

6.0Teacher Education through Distance Mode

We all know that during late 1980’s and early 90’s, B.Ed programme through correspondence mode was offered on a mass scale. Realizing the mockery of professional education through correspondence mode, the statutory NCTE ensured their closure Yashpal Committee on Academic Burden (1993) had also lent its support against the correspondence mode and clearly articulated that first degree in education should be offered through face to face mode only. However, some open universities and directorates of distance education in other universities are at present offering B.Ed programme through distance mode with the approval of NCTE after fulfilling the norms prescribed by it. The education departments of a few State Governments have also made arrangements for running the Elementary Teacher Education Programme through distance mode in order to clear the backlog of untrained teachers. No doubt, NCTE in collaboration with Distance Education Council, has made efforts to regulate teacher education through distance mode but the perception persists in the country that the quality of B.Ed through distance mode is not comparable with that of regular B.Ed. The available feedback suggests that the PCPs, teaching practice and evaluation of teaching competence are not taken seriously by the study centres as well as by the evaluators appointed by the university